Thief Launch Trailer Heralds Garrett's New Arrival

The Thief launch trailer is finally here, and it's everything I expected.

I've been ragging on Thief for quite awhile now, sometimes in jest and sometimes not so much, but with the game just a few days away I wanted to approach the launch trailer with an open mind and a fresh perspective. Forget everything that's gone before, I thought, and give this teaser for a bold, brand-new game an honest chance to rock my world!

And then it opened with Garrett being delivered to his mission by a man in a boat, a wizened and reserved soul counseling caution as the master thief stepped onto shore, and I thought to myself, well, that makes sense.

Look, I'll admit it: I'm heavily biased by my fanboyishness toward the first two Thief games and I haven't played this one so I have no idea what's in store. For all I know it might be great. It might be even better than Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which as a modern-day follow-up to a classic and much-loved game is probably about as good as anyone can reasonably expect.

But it's impossible to overlook the great many similarities between this new Thief and Dishonored, which seem to grow more obvious with every new trailer. And even if you look past that, Garrett as a magically-powered hero on a journey to save The City just doesn't fit with his well-established history as a guy who really doesn't care about The City at all except as a good place to earn a living. And amnesia? Really? This is what you're going with?

Again, bear in mind that this is all coming from an unhappy fanboy who has no basis for his opinions beyond the trailers and articles that plenty of other people have seen and liked, and take it for what it's worth. Thief may well be outstanding, and in fact if it wasn't for the previous three games in the franchise (plus, I suppose, Dishonored) I'd probably be very excited for it. But if you're going to base a new game on an old franchise with a die-hard fanbase, you better do it right - and you better make sure people know you're doing it right. And in that regard, Eidos Montreal has really dropped the ball.

Thief comes out on February 25 for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC.